Rita Menon, Secretray, Ministry of Textiles

Namrata Kath Hazarika | 22 Sep, 2009
In an exclusive interview with SME Times, Rita Menon, Secretray, Ministry of Textiles said that the government is committed to help technical textiles and may soon provide a regulatory framework to the sector to boost its growth.

Excerpts of the interview...

What is the present market size of technical/ protective textiles industry?
Rita Menon: A large number of people are involved in technical textiles. The market size of protective textile is likely to touch Rs 2,000 crore by 2012-13 from Rs 1,260 in 2007-08.

What are you doing to boost growth in protective textiles?
Rita Menon: I have a lot of hands on experience with the Ministry of Defence and I would like to use it. Well, we have so many uses for protective textiles, like for security purposes, protective gears and the big user for protective textiles is the home ministry. We have many dialogues with the ministries in this context. In fact, we have 1.5 million people in the Ministry of Defence and 1.5 million in the Ministry of Home Affairs to cater through across the country.

India is an importer of protective textiles? What is the present imports made into India? Could you highlight on the same?
Rita Menon: I do not think there is a very big figure but I think no less than about Rs. 1000 - 1200 crore of imports are made on an order to order basis. We are not manufacturing it and you will notice that because of lack of standards in exports, companies are shying to move into the domestic market. However, that will be my responsibility to get the wave of consciousness amongst the various ministries and users to be able to articulate standards which are acceptable and on which industry can move.

Protective textile products are quite costlier than other textile products. Why is it so?
Rita Menon: Yes, it is costlier from 30 percent to 100 percent because you are going to transform a fiber into a finished products like a mask, with a conversion technology. That is what we are talking to the Health Ministry and the Ministry of Consumers Affairs. We have written to the Health Ministry....we have written to every ministry. But now it is a very concerted move forward where we hope we will get some surprise.

Will certain workshops and exhibitions boost the growth of the protective textiles sector in India?
Rita Menon: Haven't you seen the number of workshops organized here. The last workshop on Medi-textiles that was organized recently brought across good response on technical textiles. I believe no person walked out. Medi-textile conference gathered good response and was hopeful. I think today has been enthusiastic and our Environment Secretary will be the chief guest for another such workshop. There is complete acceptance of Ministry of Agriculture, Home, Health, and Defense about the growth of technical textiles.

How much foreign direct investment (FDI) can we expect from this sector?
Rita Menon: I think there are going to be more efforts to bring in FDI or partnership in technical textiles. We have identified some in the United States but we can't give a fixed figure right now on technical textiles as we are moving for high-end value-addition processing. More importantly, some hardware manufacturers and capital goods manufacturers will likely partner with the Indian industry.

Actually, we are leading to very traditional high-end markets for textile in the month of October. The minister will lead the delegation and I hope I will be there.

What is the government's plan for setting up manufacturing base for protective textiles in India?
Rita Menon: Well, I see National Textile Corporation (NTC) is setting up one area where it may possibly set up a fabrication facility for protective textiles. I can't say further but NTC is one such company.